The International Journal Of Engineering And Science (IJES)

|| Volume || 3 || Issue || 5 || Pages || 41-45 || 2014 ||

ISSN (e): 2319 1813 ISSN (p): 2319 1805
www.theijes.com The IJES Page 41
Use Of Efficient And Affordable Technologies In
Checkmating The Existence Of Hazardous Waste In Ilorin,
Nigeria
1
S.A.ADEBARA,
2
M.A. ANIFOWOSE,
3
M.O. ALAO
1,3
Dpartment of Civil Engineering, Federal Polytechnic, PMB 231, Ede
2
Department of Civil Engineering, Federal Polytechnic, PMB 420, Offa

-----------------------------------------------------------ABSTRACT-----------------------------------------------
To enhance the development of clean and good health environment, this research deals with the use of
efficient and affordable technologies in checkmating the existence of hazardous waste. Human activities,
such as production and processing lead to the production of wastes (solid, liquid or gas), which must be
minimized because of their harmful effect on human life and destruction caused on the environment. Six hundred
(600) copies of questionnaires were distributed with Two hundred (200) copies each to the Three (3)
Local Government Areas in Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria; Various effects of hazardous wastes on human
health and the environment were identified to promote state of health of the people and the environment
and proper enlighten placed on the menace of hazardous waste. The role of the agencies responsible for
the controlling and monitoring of hazardous waste were examined, which shows more laxity on the part
of municipal authority in discharging its responsibilities. This then call for awaken on these bodies in
discharging their responsibilities and adequate funding from the government. Also a separate disposal site
such as landfill and incinerator should be constructed for hazardous wastes and programmes on reuse
and recycling of recoverable materials be encouraged.
KEYWORDS: hazardous waste, efficient, affordable, municipal, landfill, incinerator, recycling.
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Date of Submission: 14 April 2014 Date of Publication: 10 May 2014
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I. INTRODUCTION
The industry, government and the general public have become increasingly aware of the need to
respond to hazardous waste problem, which had grown steadily over past years. In 1980, United State
(U.S) Congress passed the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act
(CERCLA) - the Superfund law - to provide for liability, compensation, cleanup and emergency response
for hazardous substances released into the environment and the cleanup of abandoned and uncontrolled
hazardous waste disposal sites. The Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) of 1986
extend CERCLA and added new authorities under Title III of SARA that included Emergency Planning,
Community Right-to-Know and Toxic Chemical Release Reporting. The Resource Conversation and
Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976 set the standards for waste handling, storage and disposal.
Hazardous waste is generated from a wide range of activities especially from the manufacturing sector.
Notable among them are the textiles industries (spinning, weaving etc.); Food and beverages (fish
processing, slaughter houses, oil processing, cocoa processing etc.); Petroleum and petro chemical industry;
Wood processing industry; and Paints and Chemical industry (Anku, 2000). As a result of their characteristic
quality of being corrosive or inflammable, or reactive and toxic in nature, such wastes are termed as
hazardous wastes. In spite of new technologies, improved production, waste treatment and management
strategies like reduce, reuse and recycle, there is still a certain quantity of waste that need to be disposed in
a scientific way. Similarly, many household products contain the same chemicals as strictly regulated
industrial wastes and pose environmental problems. The household hazardous waste (HHW) consists of
the waste material resulted from items like; tube lights, dry battery cells, mercury vapor lamps, nail
polish remover, blades, pesticides, chemicals, out dated drugs, discarded vehicles, used oil from various
sources vehicles like; bikes, cars etc, electronic waste and bio-medical waste resulted from in house
medication. Although the quantities of chemicals disposed by individual households may be small, the
number of households in a town are many, and the amount of waste adds up (lakshmikantha, 2007).
Use Of Efficient And Affordable Technologies In
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Until recently, government policies did not require appropriate precaution for waste, and few were
taken. Simply disposing of waste was the standard and relying on the seeming inexhaustibility of the
environment was the method. Gradually, exposure to hazardous substances occurred outside the workplace via
various environmental pathways. Various hazardous wastes in an environment were identified and methods of
improvement for controlling and monitoring determined, which promote safe hygiene in various households.

II. MATERIALS AND METHODS
The descriptive survey research techniques such as Questionnaires and photographic survey
were used as means of gathering information. Six hundred (600) copies of questionnaires were
distributed with Two hundred (200) copies each to the Three (3) Local Government Areas in Ilorin,
Kwara State, Nigeria; Ilorin East Local Government Area, Ilorin West Local Government Area and Ilorin
South Local Government Area respectively. The questionnaires were distributed to the Residential
Buildings (37.5%), Market Places (50%) and Motor Parks (12.5%) of Local Government Areas. The
features noticed regarding household hazardous wastes in these areas were, heaps of Household waste
(HHW) dumped indiscriminately on the streets as shown in Plate A below, which can cause hazard to
human health.
III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
The results on the questionnaires analyses based on its validity, sex, age, occupation,
qualification of the respondents, hazardous wastes generated by the respondents, disposal method of
hazardous waste, public awareness on the effect of hazardous waste, storage validity of hazardous waste,
household waste bin, package of different waste generated, generation of monthly hazardous waste and
collection of hazardous waste generated by municipal authority are presented in Table 112 respectively with
hazardous waste generated in Figure 1..
Table 1, shows that 600 (100%) questionnaires were distributed to residential buildings, market
places and motor parks, where 573 (95.5%) only were completed and returned, and 27 (4.5%) were not
returned, which arises from the motor parks. This simply resulted from some vehicles that left the parks during
the collection of the questionnaires. Table 2, present the sex distribution of the respondent where 223
(38.92%) were males and 350 (61.08%) were females. This difference in population is an indication of more
females than the males respondents in the study Area (Ilorin), which correspond with result of the
National Population Census 2006.
Table 3, shows the combined population of ages of respondents between 11-40 years (88.83%) as the
category of people mostly involved in hazardous wastes generation and management. Table 6, indicates that
Torchlight/Phone batteries is the most Hazardous waste generated by the people 30.02%, due to its
level of usage as a result of frequent interruption of electricity. Table 7, shows that 52.88% of the
respondents are using waste bin for waste collection, due to the fact that waste bins are located at
some specific spot along the road side of the metropolis. While 14.48% and 32.64% are using open ground
and dump site respectively. This is due to improper specified location for dumping of Hazardous Wastes
and lack of enlightenment about the menace of Hazardous Wastes. Table 12, shows that 6.63% of the
respondents agreed to punctuality of municipal authority in the collection of Hazardous Wastes, while
93.37% disagreed vehemently, which is an indication that the municipal authority do not adhere strictly
to their responsibility effectively.


PLATE 1: An Open Dump Site with Hazardous Waste any Other Waste at Post Office Motor
Park, Ilorin East Local Government Area.


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Table 1: Validity of the Questionnaire
Description Frequency Percentage
No of questionnaire distributed 600 100%
No of questionnaire returned 573 95.5%
No of questionnaire not returned 27 4.5%

Table 2: Sex Distribution of the Respondents (Households)
Description Frequency Percentage
Male 223 38.92%
Female 350 61.08%
Total 573 100%

Table 3: Age Distribution of the Respondents (Households)
Description Frequency Percentage
11-20 years 198 34.55%
21- 30 years 156 27.23%
31-40 years 155 27.05%
41-50 years 40 6.98%
51-60 years 21 3.66%
61- above 3 0.56%
Total 573 100%

Table 4: Occupation of the respondents (Households)
Description Frequency Percentage
Farming 12 2.09%
Trading 78 13.61%
Civil / Servant 131 22.68%
Industrialist 110 19.02%
Others 242 42.23%
Total 573 100%

Table 5: Qualification of the Respondents (Households)
Description Frequency Percentage
No formal education 15 2.62%
Primary school 40 6.98%
WAEC / Grade II 148 25.83%
NCE / ND 198 34.55%
HND / B.Sc 155 27.05%
Higher degree 17 2.97%
Total 573 100%

Table 6: Hazardous Wastes Generated by the Respondents (Households)
Description Frequency Percentage
Phones / Torchlight batteries 172 30.02%
Paint 28 3.49%
Disinfectant 5 0.87%
Fertilizers 12 2.09%
Blades 110 19.20%
Fluorescent tubes 50 8.73%
Gas cylinder 68 11.87%
Flea shampoos and powders 89 15.53%
Out dated medicine / drugs 138 24.08%
Pesticides (herbicides and insecticides) 163 28.45%
Nail polish removal 42 7.33%
Household cleaners and polishes 92 16.06%
Sprays 133 23.21%
Thermometers 3 0.52%
Vehicle batteries 25 4.36%
Waste / used oil from various sources like; Bikes, Cars and so on. 31 5.41%
Electronic waste from TV, VCD, DVD, Computer and so on. 98 17.10%

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Table 7: Disposal Method of Hazardous Waste
Description Frequency Percentage
Waste bin 303 52.88%
Open ground 83 14.48%
Dump site 187 32.64%
Total 573 100%

Table 8: Public Awareness on the Effect of the Hazardous Waste.
Description Frequency Percentage
Awared 367 64.05%
Not Awared 206 35.95%
Total 573 100%

Table 9: Storage Validity of Hazardous Waste Household Waste Bin
Description Frequency Percentage
1-2 days 110 19.20%
2-3 days 132 23.04%
3-4 days 174 30.36 %
A week 157 27.40%
Total 573 100%

Table 10: Package of Different Waste Generated
Description Frequency Percentage
Hazardous Waste Only 58 10.12%
Hazardous Waste and Other Waste 515 89.88%
Total 573 100%

Table 11: Generation of Monthly Hazardous Waste
Monthly Frequency Percentage
Less than 50kg 537 93.72%
Between 50-100kg 34 5.93%
More than 100kg 2 0.35%
Total 573 100%

Table 12: Collection of Hazardous Waste Generated by Municipal Authority
Description Frequency Percentage
Regular 38 6.63%
Not Regular 535 93.37%
Total 573 100%


















Figure 1: Histogram for the Hazardous Wastes Generated


30.02%
3.49%
0.87%
2.09%
19.20%
8.73%
11.87%
15.53%
24.08%
28.45%
7.33%
16.06%
23.21%
0.52%
4.36%
5.41%
17.10%
0.00%
5.00%
10.00%
15.00%
20.00%
25.00%
30.00%
35.00%
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Hazardous Waste
F
r
e
q
u
e
n
c
y

(
%
)
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IV. CONCLUSION
The need to respond to hazardous waste generation, collection and disposal have grown steadily
over the years with proper awareness to the general public. Ilorin as the capital of Kwara State cannot
be left out in ways of combating the menace as most of the households used covered waste bin as method
of hazardous waste collection. Also, majority of the people did not adopt separate method of disposing
hazardous waste generated from other wastes.
However, the activities of Kwara State Environmental Protection Agency (KWEPA) and Kwara State
Waste Management Cooperation (KWMC) did not reflect a proper monitoring and control of hazardous waste
generated, due to laxity of municipal authority in discharging their responsibility. Therefore, lack of adequate
awareness on the general public and proper enlighten about the menace of hazardous waste can lead to an
outbreak of diseases such as cholera, typhoid fever and so on that affects the environment. Sequel to the
conclusion drawn, the following recommendations were made: The need for an effective waste management
from an agency responsible for waste discharge should be enhance and separate disposal site such as landfill and
incinerator for only Hazardous waste far away from the residential areas for healthy environment. Public
awareness on the existence of Hazardous waste and its effects on human health and the environment
should be adequately carried out and a programmes on Reuse and Recycling of recoverable materials (Lead
acid and dry cell battery) should be encouraged.
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